To get back on track, Danes will have to beat league’s best

ALBANY — Still stinging from last Thursday’s 60-56 loss at New Hampshire, the University at Albany basketball team has some good news and bad news this week.

The good news is that the Danes will play their next two America East games at home, in SEFCU Arena. The bad news is that the two games are against Stony Brook and Vermont — the top teams in the nine-team league. First-place Stony Brook (7-0, 15-6) is here on Wednesday night and Vermont, which beat the Danes by 30 points in Burlington earlier this month, is at SEFCU on Saturday night for UAlbany’s annual winter party, the Big Purple Growl.

Stony Brook and Vermont (6-1, 12-9) are the only two teams in the league with winning records. The Danes are 4-3 in the league and 10-10 overall. For a time, the Danes thought they were a team that was on par with Stony Brook and Vermont, but they have skidded to join the rest of the league, which, at best, can be called mediocre. The other six teams in the league all have 12 or more losses.

And the Danes have struggled mightily against the bottom feeders of the league. UAlbany has lost road games at UMass-Lowell and New Hampshire. At the time, both of those teams only had three wins. UAlbany also had tough times at home against Binghamton (4-16) and UMBC (6-14). The only league game where UAlbany has really dominated as its opener when the Danes made a season-high 16 3-pointers in an 81-56 win over Hartford.

It is not as though the Danes are a powerhouse; they aren’t. But one would think they would be good enough to handle the New Hampshires and UMass-Lowells of the world.

“We have played to the lower team’s levels,” Albany guard Peter Hooley said before practice Tuesday afternoon at SEFCU Arena. “But it is college basketball, and any team can beat any team on a given night. Everyone can play basketball; that is why these players are in Division I. If you don’t come ready to play, you are going to get beat.”

UAlbany coach Will Brown has been frustrated for his team and wants to see more emotion from this laid-back bunch. After the Danes lost at New Hampshire, Brown gave a loud, angry, passionate speech to his team in the locker room.

“This is a different group,” Brown said Tuesday. “It’s probably the most difficult group I have had to coach in my 13 years from an emotional standpoint. They don’t play with a lot of emotion. If you are going to play emotionless and not be a rah-rah group, you better play as hard as possible and you better really compete and value every possession.”

Hooley said the Danes had a players only meeting on Saturday to talk about the recent bad losses. When asked who did the talking, Hooley said, “everybody.”

He said he and senior Luke Devlin conducted the meeting. With nine games left in the regular season, the Danes are aware that there is little time left before the America East Tournament, which will be played at SEFCU in March.

“Everyone had to say something,” Hooley said, “no matter what it was. It was a good talk, we got everything out on the table. We know we are better than what we showed last week (at New Hampshire).”

Wednesday night, the Danes get the chance to prove it.

Tim Wilkin

One Response

Hopefully UA will get a split this weekend. Be a plus if they did. Coach up to you to, get kids are up for game, called coaching.
Thankfully, luckily, no Boston this year.
Thankfully tournament goes through Albany again. Same scenario as with Siena only venue that draws, I can’t imagine numbers if not played in Albany.
Hopefully team gets out of it’s funk.
Go UA.